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Quest for Twilight Enchantment Day 5
Description Welcome to the VFK Twilight Enchantment Epic Quest, Day 5! This is the fifth day of your epic quest for twilight enchantment! In today's quest, we explore the world of a creature commonly associated with twilight, the Bat! Bats, one of the most misunderstood and "villain-ized" members of the animal kingdom are fascinating creatures. First of all they are flying mammals, which sets them apart from the crowd. Secondly, they use echolocation to find their food, and thirdly, they are just plain spooky looking! This makes for an exciting fifth day of our epic quest for Twilight Enchantment where we will be exploring the interesting world of the membrane winged animals, BATS! Your reward for completing this fifth stage of this Epic Quest will be 1,000 credits and your fifth Twilight Pin, the Flying Fox Pin! Prizes Questions 1. So, villain, or good guy? There is no mistaking the mixed emotions that bats evoke in us as humans. If we catch a glimpse of a bat flying at night, their odd fluttering flight looks erratic and meaningless. Actually, they are hunting for food. Approximately seventy percent of the world's 1,100 different species of bats are insectivores. So their fluttering nighttime excursions are to catch insects. The next largest group of bats are frugivores (fruit eaters) and the remainder are carnivorous. A bat's wings are similar in structure to a hand with spread fingers and each finger being joined by a membrane. This membrane is called the: * Patagium * Patagonia * Chiroptera * Pathogens 2. Bats are often called flying mice or flying rodents, or thought to be a type of bird or insect, however, they do not fall under any of these categories. They are the only true flying mammals and are of the order Chiroptera. There are several other mammals which glide, such as flying squirrels. However, a bat's forearms are actually wings and they are agile, precise flyers. Bats are primarily nocturnal and usually only fly at night, or at twilight. Go to the cave where it is most likely that you will find bats, at the outside of Ned Kelly's Hideout room in Australia and say "I've heard there might be bats in there!" 3. There are two main suborders of bats: Megachiroptera or Megabats and Microchiroptera or microbats. The name implies that the megabats are larger in size, however the two groups are differentiated by other characteristics. The Microbats primarily rely on echolocation to find their prey and to navigate. Their ears do not form a closed ring at the base. In addition, instead of having a warm underfur, they only have guard hairs or are hairless. Their diet consists of insects, small mammals, fish, and the blood of small animals. Even though their eyes are small and not well developed, they are not blind. They use their poor vision to see past where their echolocation can reach. What interesting characteristic of Microbats has been discovered? * That some species are actually small flying foxes. * That some species can see ultraviolet light. * That some species will hibernate with owls. * That some bats lay rubbery eggs. 4. Microbats use an echolocation process where they create a high-pitched sound and then listen to its echo, similar to whales and dolphins, to fly and locate prey. Bats have an excellent sense of smell and keen hearing. Because a single bat can eat about 3,000 mosquito sized insects in a night, people consider them to be a natural form of pest control and encourage bats to nest close by. They will put up "bat houses" to attract them. Some insects such as certain moths have been found to have a defense against bats. They have a special organ that hears the "ultra-sonic" sounds emitted by bats, and react with twitches causing the moth to evade the bat's grasp. Microbats also have touch sensitive cells on the surface of their wings and some species actually use their wings to help capture prey. Go to the second room of the English Countryside off of Stonehenge and say "Blind as a bat!" 5. Megabats are the other suborder of bats which do not use echolocation to find food, and include frugivores and nectarivores. For Most species of Megabats, their diet includes fruit, pollen and nectar from flowers (which won't usually try to escape when hunted). The Megabats pollinate flowers and help disperse seeds by carrying the seeds to another location to consume. Some tropical flowers rely on Megabats for their survival. One species of Megabats is the very striking Golden-crowned flying Fox. These bats are very rare and can only be found in the rainforests of the Phillippines. They are the largest bats in the world with a wingspan of 5 feet, a body length of sixteen inches and weighing in at 3 pounds. They prefer ripe figs and due to the large amount of fruit they consume thus dispersing fruit seeds, this species is sometimes called: * Fruit Farmer * Farmer Fox * Environmentalist Bat * Silent Planter 6. The larger species of Megabats have big eyes which face forward and enable them to see in twilight and dark places. Only one Megabat, the Egyptian fruit bat uses a form of echolocation and emits clicks to find their way around dark cave interiors. The nectivores have long tongues which can lick the nectar out of flowers and will pollinate the plants like bees. Go to the garden room outside of your colonial living room, and say "Flying foxes would love these trees." 7. So, what about the dreaded vampire bat? There are three species of bats that actually do feed on the blood of animals. They are tropical bats and are found ranging from Mexico to Brazil, Chile and Argentina. Only one species will mostly prey on mammals and the other two prefer birds and goats. They hunt when it is fully dark and have specialized sensors on their noses. What do these sensors detect? * They are infrared receptors which detect warmth. * They are specialized smell receptors to detect scents. * They are special hearing receptors. * They are specialized motion receptors. 8. False Vampire bats or ghost bats are quite interesting. They are not vampire bats, but are instead insectivores and have also been known to prey on small animals. Their coloring gives them their name of ghost bat. Many of the species are brown, however some are grayish blue, white or even olive-green so that they blend into their roosting areas and are camouflaged for protection. These bats are quite large with large eyes, ears and nose. Go to the Corner of Balta Street in the Victorian Age and say "Beware of spooky ghost bats!" 9. Throughout history, people have been afraid of bats. They are portrayed as evil and dangerous. For the majority of bat species, nothing could be farther from the truth. Bats are predominantly gentle and very intelligent animals. They rear a single young called a pup and transport their young by having their pup cling to them until they are too big to carry. Because bats mostly come out at night, and people have historically been afraid of the dark, the bats have been associated with that fear. Add that to the fact that they are the only flying mammal, and it can cause more superstition to arise around the creatures unjustly. What superstition is NOT still commonly told about bats? * That they will tangle themselves in your hair and make a nest. * That they will attack and bite you unprovoked. * That they will carry off your dog. * That they are vampires in disguise. 10. An interesting story surrounding gray bats places them at the heart of the Civil War. Southern forces would mine bat guano from the roosting caves of gray bats as a reliable source of saltpeter when they were no longer able to import the chemical. The bat manure was used to make gunpowder during the war. Go to the map of the medieval setting and say "Bats only come out at night!" Answers 1. Patagium 2. Go to Ned Kelly's Hideout in Australia and say "I've heard there might be bats in there!" 3. That some species can see ultraviolet light. 4. Go to English Countryside - II off of Stonehenge and say "Blind as a bat!" 5. Silent Planter 6. Go to The Garden and say "Flying foxes would love these trees." 7. They are infrared receptors which detect warmth. 8. Go to the Corner of Balta Street in the Victorian Age and say "Beware of spooky ghost bats!" 9. That they will carry off your dog. 10. Go to the Medieval Age Map and say "Bats only come out at night!" Category:Quests Category:Epic Quests